


Doldrums and Daisies

by GulJeri



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry Potter - Freeform, M/M, Malfoy, Malfoy Manor, Spinners End, Summer, Teenagers, Young Severus Snape, young Lucius Malfoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 18:22:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3391589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GulJeri/pseuds/GulJeri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucius and Snape write to each other over the summer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doldrums and Daisies

**Author's Note:**

> Might be an ost might be more.

Lucius Malfoy swept into the manor. He was greeted by one of the house elves—Snappy, or Snippy, or some such thing. It wasn't as if Lucius could be bothered to memorize and recall all of their names. Besides, most of them looked alike; gray and ugly and bug-eyed.

 

Two more of the tiny creatures came to get Lucius' trunk and take it to his room.

 

His father moved past him seemingly distracted. Abraxas Malfoy was far more attentive to his work than his son. Lucius had stopped caring, really, or at least he told himself that he had. If he told himself that enough times it would just be true. He and his father had always been two people passing each other on different planes while living under the same roof. It was odd but it was the way things were.

 

At least he was home for the summer, and Lucius did enjoy being at the manor. He knew all of its nooks and crannies quite well. The only downside was that summer could get a bit dull. There were always plenty of things to do in Pureblood circles of course; dinners where one would be expected to schmooze and hobnob, balls and cotillions festooned with blushing debutantes, and of course summer was the perfect time for garden parties with floating fairy lanterns beneath moon and stars. Plenty of things to do, yes, but to a young man Lucius' age (and who had been moving in these circles and attending such things his entire life) they did become rather mundane. One attended to keep ones ties to the correct people strong, to keep up appearances, and Lucius was wonderful at keeping up appearances.

 

He'd get to see familiar faces so he wouldn't really miss anyone from school. Those he surrounded himself with whilst swaggering up and down the hallways of Hogwarts were the same children he had grown up with, whose families kept the same or similar social circles as he did. The Blacks, LeStranges, Crabbes, Goyles, Notts, Yaxleys, MacNairs, Wilkes, and many others would be included but there was one person who Lucius quite admired who did not hover in those circles.

 

Severus Snape.

  
But Lucius was a clever boy—of course what sort of Slytherin would he be otherwise?--and he was exceptionally good at getting what he wanted.

 

He'd been determined to keep in touch with Severus over the summer. Normally such a thing wouldn't be difficult, one would send correspondence via owl to ones friend. However, Severus didn't have an owl. Floo calls might have been an option, but Severus didn't have one of those either.

 

Therefore Lucius had been pushed to get creative.

 

He'd blackmailed an older student into creating a charm that could be used to directly link two pieces of parchment. Lucius had tried to do so himself but Charms had never been his strongest subject so he'd found someone who was brilliant in Charms and who he could get dirt on and use it against him. The plan had gone swimmingly and now Lucius had a piece of parchment that he could write on, and the message would appear directly on Severus' piece, and they could go back and forth as such.

 

Lucius made his way through manor and towards the conservatory. It was large room off the back of the manor with glass walls and ceilings. It was full of beautiful flowering plants that would have been dead if left up to his father to care for him. Luckily there were the house elves for those sort of tasks. Lucius supposed he couldn't quite blame his father for not wanting to get his hands dirty.

 

The back of the conservatory boasted beautiful French doors which opened up to a patio and courtyard. That too was kept up by the Malfoy house elves and the summertime blossoms were spectacular; they were natural fireworks bright, and eager, and soft—explosions of delicate petals. The air was heavily perfumed and it gave Lucius a nice sense that the summer and things to come would be sweet.

 

He walked the path and settled himself on a stone bench which marked a small shrine to his mother. Behind him was a fountain and the bubble of the color-changing water was a comfort to him. If he closed his eyes he might imagine it was her laughter, distant and fluid, a memory of a boy just barely old enough to recall her smile and her eyes.

 

The parchment was in an inner pocket of Lucius' robe, along with his self-inking quill, and he pulled both of them out and repositioned himself on the bench, straddling it and a bit hunched over, so he could use it as both seat and table.

 

_Severus,_

 

_I've been home only a few minutes, but I couldn't wait any longer. This worked wonderfully when we tried it out in the common room but we were only a short distance apart. I do hope it works just as well now that we're more distant, or I'll have Rosiers' head for it._

 

Lucius watched the slick, ebony ink, fade into the parchment and away as if caught and swept away by a breeze. He stared down at the remaining blankness in impatient anticipation.

 

A few moments later he was delighted to see letters and words appear in a script that was familiar to him.

 

_Lucius,_

 

_You're always so impatient. Do you really miss me so? Summers only begun and you're already bothering me._

 

Lucius snorted.

 

_Bothering you? You're the one who spent an entire month before school was finished complaining at every opportunity about how you'd be bored all summer. I just thought I'd save you from such doldrums but if you'd rather I left you to it..._

 

Severus Snape was not sitting in a well-manicured garden as was his counterpart, but he was mirroring the snort that Lucius had given his last message.

 

Severus was sitting on his bed in Spinners End. He was wearing a frown that he would not remove all summer long (unless maybe a few small instances when Lily could break through it) and he kept shifting and moving. It was difficult to find a spot on the bed that was comfortable. Either there were too many broken springs, or his bottom was too bony; actually it was probably a bit of both.

 

That along with the general _everything_ of being 'home' had him in a very bad mood. It seemed like thick clouds were always hanging low overhead in Spinners End, and they were dirty and polluted by the old Mill, and underneath them was polluted by the dusty and bent men who worked in the Mill, and winding around all of it was resentment that tasted like ale, and sounded like slurred curses, and stank like the dirty river. Spinners End was trash, and Severus felt like trash when he was there.

 

Lily was usually enough to help him through the summers but there was a gap growing there, something off, something that Severus didn't want to acknowledge. He'd need Lucius' help through the summer too, though he'd never admit it to the other boy.

 

But he was secretly grateful for the parchment; the link to better people and better things.

 

_Lucius stop being so over-dramatic,_ Severus wrote,  _I know it's difficult, but try for goodness sake._

 

He watched the ink sink away and lifted his wand to zap a fly out of the air as he waited for a reply.

 

_But I'm so very good at it, Severus. Are you certain I must? I'm not sure what I would do with myself, honestly! You expect too much of me._

 

Severus rolled his eyes.

 

_You're hopeless, Lucius._

 

The answer back came quickly.

 

_Most likely. However I have the distinct feeling that you'll continue to tolerate my presence. Am I wrong? No._

 

_So tell me, Severus, what are you doing now that you're at home? Tell me what it's like. You've never really said much about where you live._

 

Of course he hadn't and for good reason. He didn't want his Slytherin mates to know that he came from some Muggle arsehole that called itself a town. He never spoke of his home, or the dysfunctional people that were his 'family', and never planned to.

 

_I'm sitting on my bed. It's really quite exciting—there's some fool writing notes to me._

 

_Why don't you tell me what you're doing? I'm sure it's much more interesting._

 

Severus leered in amusement, his black eyes lighting a bit. He supposed he could survive summer if it meant frequently jousting with Lucius like this.

 

_I'm sitting in the garden,_ said Lucius' elegant handwriting,  _oh Severus, you should see it. It's simply gorgeous. I think our Herbology professor would have a fit if he could visit, it's that grand._

 

Severus was immediately jealous of his friend. Lucius was sitting among beautiful, scented, flowers while he was stuck in a gutter that was frequented by a drunk Muggle who reminded Severus every so often of just how much he cared for him (which was so very little that had his fathers' concern for him been like a bank account, it would have been well into the red with no chance of recovery), and a witch who was half mad. His mother spent her time living as a shell, or screaming at his father, there was no happy medium of functionality.

 

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was in the garden with Lucius. Anywhere but in his lousy bedroom.

 

At least he was magic; there was that. He was a wizard and that damn well meant something. It meant that he wouldn't be trapped in Spinners End forever. It meant that he could _be someone..._ maybe even someone _important._

 

That drive had been the original reason he'd attempted to gain entrance into Lucius Malfoy's circle. However he'd been awkward, and he didn't exactly look or act like someone who Malfoy would have at his side.

 

It was his knowledge and his mind that had impressed the older boy, and that along with the duty Lucius felt to look after the younger Slytherins (if we don't look after each other, no one will, Lucius always said) had made for the beginnings of what became a genuine friendship and mutual admiration.

 

_Severus, why'd you stop writing?_

 

Severus blinked out of his thoughts and gave a small sigh.

 

_Don't ask too many questions, Lucius. You might not like the answer. I do need my hands for things other than writing._

 

Like covering my ears, Severus thought, as he heard his parents starting up already through the lovely paper-thin walls. But he'd allow Lucius to use his imagination.

 

He waited for several minutes for a reply, but none came, and Severus was amused.

 

Writing to Lucius was certainly more entertaining than zapping flies.

 

 


End file.
